![\"USTA\"](\"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/USTA.png\")
USTA<\/p>\nUSTA<\/p>\n
FLUSHING, N.Y.<\/strong> – The USTA Foundation, the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), celebrated 30 years of serving up dreams during its Opening Night Gala at the 2024 U.S. Open. The annual event raised over $2.2 million to help support the more than 250 community organizations that are part of the USTA Foundation\u2019s flagship National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network.<\/p>\n This network, created in 1969 by pioneering tennis legend and humanitarian Arthur Ashe, for whom Arthur Ashe Stadium was named 27 years ago, along with Charlie Pasarell and Sheridan Snyder, provides more than 150,000 youth from under-resourced communities nationwide with more equitable access to tennis, education, and life skills development to help prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of life. Pasarell and Ashe\u2019s wife, Jeanne Ashe, were gala special guests, along with USTA Foundation founder Judy Levering and tennis legend, sneaker icon and humanitarian Stan Smith.<\/p>\n Scott Wapner, host of CNBC\u2019s \u201cFast Money Halftime Report\u201d and \u201cClosing Bell,\u201d served as gala emcee, while composer, lyricist, and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda served as Honorary Co-Host. Mariska Hargitay and Tommy Haas served as Honorary Co-Chairs for the event. Actor Alec Baldwin led a live auction where supporters bid on unique experiences and items. Also during the event, 18-time major singles champion and USTA Foundation Chairperson Chris Evert honored former US Open champion Andy Roddick with the \u201cServing Up Dreams\u201d award for his efforts to give back to youth from under-resourced communities through the Andy Roddick Foundation. ESPN served as Presenting Sponsor, and Moet also sponsored the event.<\/p>\n \u201cThis gala is about so much more than raising funds \u2013 it\u2019s about opening the door of opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young people across the country,\u201d said USTA Foundation CEO Ginny Ehrlich. \u201cFor 30 years, we have carried on the mission of combining tennis and education to transform the lives of young people \u2013 especially those most in need. Thanks to the generosity of our individual and corporate donors, we will continue to use the power of tennis to help prepare more youth for whatever life serves them and give them access to the possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Other supporters in attendance included fashion icons Anna Wintour and Vera Wang, businessman and \u201cShark Tank\u201d investor Daymond John, journalist Katie Couric, TODAY Show on-air contributor and fitness instructor Ally Love, professional ballerina Misty Copeland, former tennis star Monica Seles, and many more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FLUSHING, N.Y.<\/strong> – The USTA Foundation, the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), celebrated 30 years of serving up dreams during its Opening Night Gala at the 2024 U.S. Open. The annual event raised over $2.2 million to help support the more than 250 community organizations that are part of the USTA Foundation\u2019s flagship National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[33,343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10546,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions\/10546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clubinsideronline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}